


save a bronco, ride a buckaroo

by roseandthorns28



Series: [insert title] [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Feels, I don't even ship it, M/M, Recovery, Team as Family, Tony Stark Has A Heart, it just sideswept me, no beta we die like men, playing fast and loose with canon, send help, slight hint of clint/coulson, tony feels kinda, which i didn't really plan for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 17:46:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16202510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseandthorns28/pseuds/roseandthorns28
Summary: Tony Stark is not an asshole. He just plays one for the TVs.So, the fact that he doesn’t address the recovering Winter Soldier, Cap’s best bud by name for months after he moves into the Tower is not a testament to his arrogance but rather something borne out of an understanding that identity is a fickle bitch and that names are more than just an identifying marker.





	save a bronco, ride a buckaroo

**Author's Note:**

> This is Tony's POV for [ "by any other name" ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14944860) but knowledge of that fic is not necessary for this one. Still, it'll be a much better experience if you read them both since this doesn't cover everything the first one does.

Tony Stark is not an asshole. He just plays one for the TVs.

Despite his laundry list of shortcomings, he knows he’s turned a new leaf since his very rude awakening in the form of waking up with an electromagnet in his chest.

So, the fact that he doesn’t address the recovering Winter Soldier, Cap’s best bud by name for months after he moves into the Tower is not a testament to his arrogance but rather something borne out of an understanding that identity is a fickle bitch and that sometimes one flounders to define what lays under the myriad of masks.   
  
Unlike with Nat, the comparison is not as smooth since the two of them still managed to retain some level of individuality while Bucky Barnes was stripped of all he was and forcefully rewritten into someone, something new.

Still, he knows a bit about what it's like to have your entire being revolt at the sound of a particular name. He still can't hear _Ant_  without feeling his skin crawl away from him.

 

It doesn’t start off like that, though.

 

The first time he sees Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes in his Tower, Tony can’t bring himself to call him by the name of the hero he grew up hearing about.

Despite his extensive study of everything that he endured under the delicate care of fucking HYDRA, the acceptance that nothing Barnes had done – especially the hit on his parents – could be held against him, despite having agreed to house and protect the washed out brainwashed soldier, when Steve introduces the hollow-eyed homeless looking man next to him as Bucky, Tony cannot get that name through his lips.

It feels like a betrayal to the memory of the idea of the man he spent his whole life idolising, perhaps sometimes even more than Cap himself.

So, the first time, Tony is too focused on tamping down on his own nausea and anxiety to even think about the name he addresses Barnes with.

He uses a last name as a way to create some distance. Despite the fixations of his youth, the man that’s introduced to him is more _Soldat_ than _Bucky_.  

Steve’s idealism can stand no ground against good old fashioned Stark stubbornness.

It doesn’t take long for his resolve to break though. There’s something about the spectral existence of the man that makes Tony pay attention to him. And of course, there’s also the burning curiosity. 

It’s his keen observation, helped along by JARVIS letting him just barely skirt the limitations of personal space and privacy, that reveals the tiny tells given by Barnes at a  variety of triggers, most of all the name ‘Bucky’.

From then, there’s a niggling sense of doubt that turns into a hypothesis and then into a theory with plenty of evidence.

 

Bucky Barnes hates being called that and no one seems to realise.

 

It’s a sad day when _Tony_ turns out to be the one most sensitive to the needs of a recovering amnesiac POW in a house of super spies, demi-gods, and said amnesiac’s best friend.

He’s the least qualified person to handle this so he does his best to be subtle about it, asking when he can, and substituting with nicknames when he cannot.

(Since the number of incidents he’d flagged of Barnes displaying the same trigger induced tells had been pretty spread out across the board for most variants of the names he’d been called by all the others. The only thing that passes muster, and barely, is when J calls him Sergeant Barnes and Tony takes a moment to revel in the selfish delight of the soldier’s acceptance of his creation.)

It doesn’t detract a lot from whatever paltry interactions they _do_ have. Even when Barnes starts coming out of his shell and becomes a more solid presence amongst the wayward superheros.

Let it never be said that Tony Stark lacks patience because he’s content to have handful of interactions with Bucky Barnes every week where he uses a myriad of nicknames if it means getting to see that personality bloom under the shell of hesitance and brooding.

So, when it finally happens, he’s not really ready for it.

 

Tony walks into the kitchen, dressed only in his shirt and trousers, his tie hanging around his neck, midway through his pre-meeting routine.

“Hey, Robocop, toss me that muffin.”

“He has a name, you know,” Steve pipes up, his tone long suffering.

It’s not exactly a full house but close. Barnes is sitting on the table in his usual spot, Steve next to him with their multiple dishes of breakfast, while Clint is perched on the counter next to an open box of Lucky Charms, shoving fistfuls of dry cereal into his mouth.

Tony glances at his watch and he knows he has enough time to indulge in some Steve needling. And if it has a side benefit of an extra Barnes interaction then he’s really not complaining.

“Seriously, I’m not calling him that. I’m not calling you that.” Tony can see Steve’s jaw clench and chin tilt up in annoyance but doesn’t desist because Tony is nothing if not a closer.  “ _Bucky Barnes_. Makes you sound like a rodeo cowboy.”

“Or a pornstar.” Clint interjects.

“I’ll take cowboy over pornstar. There’s no pun in there, Clint. Seriously. Bucky Barnes would make a boring porn name.”

“No self respecting cowboy would ever have such a punny name. That’s what you name the _horse_ not the cowboy. Trust me I was in a circus. I know these things.”

“Well, still a rodeo-related name. Ergo I win, you lose. End of story.”

“As if, asshole. I never admitted defeat. I got one for you: what if it’s cowboy porn?”

“Okay… I can see that.”

“Are you saying you can see me in porn, Stark?” Barnes interjects finally. 

Surprisingly, he doesn’t look ready to blow his top – ok, poor choice of words when talking about porn- like the good captain does. He’s more…. intrigued. Wait, that’s a smirk, right? The Winter Soldier is smirking at Tony while talking about him doing porn and Tony’s pretty sure he’s just been flirted with.

“Yeah, Tony, you wanna see Barnes all naked and oiled up in a cowboy hat?”

 _Yes_ , Tony thinks and despairs because, no. That is not where this was going, right? He just has a natural curiosity towards Barnes. It’s not… he’s not perving on him. The mental images of an oil-slick Barnes leaning back in his bed in a cowboy hat – in only a cowboy hat – beg to differ, though.

“Okay, one, you’re the one who brought it up, Hawkass, so don’t go throwing stones from your glass house. And two, isn’t it time for your regular mandated call to Agent Agent so you can pine at him through a screen?”

“Suck a dick, asshole!” Clint calls over his shoulder as he walks out of the kitchen.

“Well, it isn’t gonna be yours, birdbrain, so keep dreaming!” Tony calls out as he moves towards the coffee machine, shaking his head in amusement.

Peripherally, he notices that Steve has vacated his seat, having learnt long ago that it was best not to get between a Clint-Tony back’n’forth or running the risk of being scandalised for life. He still shifted uncomfortably in his seat whenever he saw a ginger root in the kitchen.

“James.”

A low, gruff voice speaks in Tony’s ear and the genius startles badly, pressing a hand to his chest, his train of thought derailing.

“What the fuck – you trying to give me a heart attack, Super Sneak?” He hisses, turning his head to look at Barnes who’s decided to pick this moment to use his assassin training to sneak up on Tony pre-morning coffee.

Which, _unfair_.

“Sorry didn’t mean to startle you. Just – James. If you wanted to call me something.”

“James. See, that’s a respectable name. Not a cowboy name at all. I know a James. He’s the best. I call him Rhodey, though,” He replies almost on instinct, even though he does recognise the importance of this moment, of this event of self-expression of Bar- James’ identity.

Tony turns to look at him, _really_ look at him and sees a tentative frown and wide hopeful eyes.

 _Ha! Suck it, Cap, I was right_ , he crows in the privacy of his own head.

And also, _damn those eyes are pretty._

 

~x~

 

The problem with Tony is that once something comes to his attention, it’s really hard for him to get it out of his head. Which means that James and his goddamn eyes _that are so pretty they are unreal_ refuse to leave his thoughts.

So, it becomes really hard for him to hold himself back every time he sees that spark in them extinguish at James being called the wrong name.

He doesn’t know if it’s due to stubbornness or if it’s because Tony’s the first – and only – person he’s told which, really flattering, but whichever it is, he takes it upon himself to _fix this_ . He’s held himself back too long and the time for playing with kiddie gloves is over.   
  
If the rest of the team isn’t going to take note of James’ preferences on their own, then Tony is going to make sure they have no other option but to change their ways.

For the first – and perhaps only – time in his life, Tony turns to the muddy waters of psychology and implements the technique of operant conditioning.

Although, these people were more physiologists and Tony _did_ build Bruce a lab for all his squishy science stuff so maybe he could extend the scope of his work to some of the social sciences too. But not all, obviously.

Point being, Tony devises a plan in the middle of a long, hot shower when he – through no conscious initiative of his of course – thinks about James, cowboys, and riding. Guess Archimedes was onto something when he made bathtime discoveries.

It’s simple in its execution and beautiful in the results it yields.

 

  
Thanks to Birdbrain Uno and Dos, their propensity for shenanigan and the love-hate bromance they have with Barnes, it kicks off beautifully.

What ensues is a two month long operation where every utterance of the name ‘Bucky’ is combated with cowboy puns and jokes by Tony.

He thinks he might be a little bit of a masochist because instead of ignoring his cowboy-theme induced fixation on James until it goes away, Tony excarberates it.

He reigns himself in enough to not use any of the dirty ones, of which there are a multitude, in front of James or the others because the last thing he wants is to make him uncomfortable. Hell, this whole endeavour is an exercise in making him feel more at home in his skin.

But even discounting the innuendos, there is just so much material to choose from, especially when Sam and Clint do half the work for him in the beginning.

It’s only after a month that it starts getting on everyone’s nerves and then Tony instead enlists JARVIS’ help who’s the best prankster in the Tower, hands down.

He keeps expecting James to come tell him to ease up, to stop being so _too much_ and to give him some damn space. Everyone knows that Tony only has two modes: zero and full throttle. To his utter surprise, there is no censure to be found from that avenue. There’s more than enough coming from Steve, obviously, but Tony knows the difference between real disapproval and the light one that he can ignore.

Instead, James seems to encourage this silly project of Tony’s, shooting him small conspiratorial smiles and winks when no one is watching.

The worst is when he starts imitating the Westerns that Tony forces the team to sit through the first week. James’ gravelly voice, drawling out ‘sugar’s and ‘Howdy’s to Tony makes his stomach clench in arousal. God, it’s got to be the single most hottest thing he’s ever heard.

For the first time in his adult life, Tony stark blushes, flustered in the face of a stubbly, stormy eyes James Barnes flirting so obviously with him in a fake Western drawl.

The less said about the cowboy hat incident, the better.

 

All of that remains hidden behind closed doors and averted eyes, though, because Tony knows that there is a difference between reciprocity of interest and playful flirting and he’s not about to dump his unsolicited interest, not to mention his goddamn issues, on James.

So despite the fact that his interest very quickly shifts from something casual to something more profound, something that has the opportunity to turn into _a thing_ , Tony buries it all deep and keeps on keeping on. Business as usual, nothing to see here.

Thankfully, James is braver than Tony about this and somehow, he finds himself actually in a relationship with the object of his affection. It takes a week or two and a thump upside his head by Bruce to actually accept his changed fortune.

This gives him plenty of opportunity to actually use the dirty cowboy jokes he’d shored up over the course of the past few months.

 

Tony knows he’s found the one when after a month of dating, James propositions him by whispering a cheesy cowboy related pick-up line about riding a cowboy in his ear as he bends over some schematics.

And, so he does. Many many times.

So many times that he gets it on a damn t-shirt because Tony Stark doesn’t do anything by halves.

**Author's Note:**

> con-crit welcome. please yell in the comments if you feel like. I always reply. 
> 
> or come talk to me at my [ tumblr ](http://roe-sesandthorns.tumblr.com/). Or find me on the discord server @roe-sesandthorns#7567


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